In confession we open our lives to healing, reconciling, restoring, & uplifting grace of Him……..There is mercy for a sinner, but there is no mercy for the man who will not own himself a sinner.

In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance. - St. Thomas Aquinas: (1225 – 1274: was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. )

Gospel Text: (LK 10:13-16)

Jesus said to them,
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.'
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

Jesus never says, "Woe is me!" Not once in the four accounts of the Gospel does Jesus ever say such a thing. However, more than a few times Jesus expresses woe. He expresses these woes regarding those who do not listen, and do not follow, the Word of God.

We might wonder what emotions Jesus experienced as He pronounced the woes in today's Gospel passage. He had just reasons to be angry, as well as frustrated. Nonetheless, regardless of which emotions might have been running through His mind and heart, we know that Jesus had compassion for those He was preaching against.

In fact, to say that Jesus in pronouncing these woes was preaching against the people of these cities would call for a qualification. In preaching woes against the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida, Jesus was preaching for them. Does that sound like a contradiction? It's no more of a contradiction than is a father who disciplines his child. Everything that Jesus did during His earthly life, including the overturning of the money changers' tables, and the preaching of woes against the unfaithful, was for the sake of those in spiritual danger, to bring them back from a precipice into the arms of a loving Father.